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Suicide and Ibsen's Hedda Gabler.(19th-century Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen)

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From: Scandinavian Studies
Date: 19990322
Author:Norseng, Mary Kay

Henrik Ibsen's play "Hedda Gabler" can be interpreted by exploring the notion of Hedda's suicide and the philosophical meaning of sight. Hedda disappears from the stage before the suicidal act, so the audience cannot see it. Critics must try to place themselves in the mind of Hedda, utilizing psychological and personal reports of suicidal impulses, and imagine what Hedda herself has seen in the moment.

(The Seen and the Unseen, Sight and Site, In the Theater of the Mind)

PROLOGUE

(WHAT IF WE SAW WHAT HEDDA SAW?)

"What do you intend to do?" Hedda Gabler asks her distraught ...

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